Spring/4

“Kasi meet Tanya my very good friend. Tanya meet Kasi…” Sveta is saying as they come up to where we are standing.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you” I say stretching out my hand. She takes hold of it and I am holding on to her outstretched hands gently, refusing to let go. And she doesn’t seem to mind.

“Well guys lets go and party!” Ugo says and puts his hand around Sveta’s waist.
“Davaite!” Eddy says in agreement and locks his hands with Natasha’s as they too start walking into the lobby area and head towards the stairs.
I am holding her hands as we walk behind the couples in front and I am thinking that she looks ever so lovable. “You are very beautiful” I say “…I am already attracted to you…”

She smiles again like a little child who is being paid a compliment but says nothing. Instead I notice that she is blushing and it is clear that she is a very shy person. I am already starting to feel protective of her as we make our way through the doors and into the large ballroom.

The master of ceremony is in the centre of the room and he is making an announcement about the food that is about to be served. Ugo and Eddy with their dates are making their ways to different seats that they have been able to locate in the long L-shaped table but I am standing at the door and surveying the room with my eyes as soft music begins to play in the background .

The hall is almost filled up and there are very few spaces left to sit down. And then I notice that somebody is getting up in the far corner and adjacent to where the person was sitting, I can see two vacant seats.

We make our way to these seats and I am feeling very proud of having Tanya by my side as I notice the surreptitious glances of admiration from some of the guys who are already seated at the table. I catch one guy staring at her as I pull out the chair for her and then finally sit down next to her.

Adelaide with her friend Pedro is sitting directly opposite me! And as she sees me, she smiles; her smile is one of acknowledgement-nothing derisive or discountenancing-just a simple smile of one acquaintance who wants to acknowledge the other; a simple smile that reminds me of how beautiful she is and which is making me to once again realise how much I need her.

Our story is not yet finished Adelaide, I am thinking as I look at her; our story will remain for as long as I feel this way towards you and it has to be completed...

“Well sit down!” Tanya says.
“Okay!” I say and sit down; I had remained standing after I saw Adelaide and I am now feeling a bit uncomfortable about her sitting across the table from me. Why is fate playing such a prank on me?! Why does it have to be these seats of all the ones in this large hall that are vacant? I am looking at Pedro and I feel a tug of jealousy on my heart. He is just sitting there and is looking past me as if I do not exist in his world.

Tanya is looking at me now with a question in her eyes “Er…so tell me about yourself” I eventually say.
“And what do you want to know?”
“Everything!”.
“Okay.” She says and starts to narrate to me the story of her life. Tanya was born and brought up in Rostov, and had never met her dad who was a Nigerian student studying at the Rostov Institute of Engineering at the time. Her mum was originally from Novercherkassk, the same place that Natasha her friend comes from and which is just a few miles away from Rostov.

In those days, Tanya’s mother would regularly visit some of her friends who lived here in Rostov and on one of such visits she had met her dad. Then one thing lead to another and several months later her mother was pregnant for the African.

Her grandparents on realising that she was going to be born with “black skin”, had bundled her mother out to go and live with her "Babushka"-an elderly distant relative of theirs-who lived alone in Rostov and who had no family of her own. They had threatened her father with death if he didn't keep away from their daughter since for them it was inconceivable for her-their only daughter-to get married to a black man from Africa.

Tanya heard that after she was born, her mother became a victim of regular racially motivated attacks and taunts of being a “prostitutka”. She said that as a result of this life became very difficult for her mother and that she started to find it difficult to move forward with her life. She gradually realised that Tanya had become a burden that she didn’t feel quite able to carry. So one day, she got up, packed her bags and left.

Tanya was 3 years old when her mother left. She has not seen her mother since that day 15years ago when she left her with the Babushka who brought her up and whom she still lives with. Tanya just turned 18 and says that she is looking for a Nigerian boyfriend who will take her back home to Africa one day. And as she talks I am looking at her and feeling very sorry for her.

The waiters have started to serve the food and I notice Adelaide has gotten up from her chair and is slowly making her way towards the exit of the room. I am thinking that she is going to the ladies room and I am staring at her as she walks across the floor.
“What are you staring at?!” I hear Tanya asking. She has been following my eyes and i think she must have noticed the way I was staring at Adelaide.
“I wasn’t staring at anything“ I lie “I am just thinking about the things you have just told me.”

I cannot afford to hurt this girl because she must have suffered so much in her life. I have to make the extra effort to treat her right and maybe I will come to love her and then everything will be alright for the both of us, I am thinking. But I can’t get this need for Adelaide out of me; this need which now pulls on my heart so strongly since I met with her again this evening.

I will have to make the effort to ignore Adelaide for the sake of this poor young lady who is now sitting here by my side...looking at me.